Netherlands-based systems integration and consultancy firm Origin BV has signed a strategic alliance with QA Systems International BV to strengthen the two companies offerings in software configuration and change management, and build a $20m business for the two partners in this area by 2000. The alliance involves Origin’s Technical Automation division, established in January this year, which provides the gamut of back-end support services for managing a manufacturer’s entire development environment. QA, a Netherlands-based outfit with operations in Germany, provides a controlled development environment for software developers, with tools for managing software design and development. Origin says manufacturers of consumer products such as Philips Electronics NV, which both companies share as a customer, are having to put more and more software into their products, and therefore find they have teams of programmers that need managed development environments. QA’s tools provide the front-line support and management for this development, and Origin takes over once the systems are up and running. Origin says there is some overlap in the two companies’ customers, but in the main the alliance will enable both to penetrate new areas. For its part, Origin says QA is just one of a number of vertical systems partners with which it will form alliances.